Exchanged Love
by Devil Boy
Summary: This story isn't only love, there's adventure and mystery too! Stuff happens, new tunnel found, love mysteries somewhat unraveled. Where I Got The Story Idea: Silverfire's Love and Chocolate.
1. Exchange Students

Exchanged Love  
  
A/N: My name is Ron, and I am 15, so the new main character is modeled after me.  
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Ron looked at his schedule as he walked up the stairs to Hogwarts. He was 15, an exchange student from the American witch and wizard school, Fallsdale. It was the second day of school, and the first year where exchange students would come to Hogwarts. Ron was one of six exchange students to come to Hogwarts. Also coming from Fallsdale was Ron's friend Jenny. Ron was to go to Professor Albus Dumbledore's office where he, Jenny, and the other four exchange students would be sorted. Jenny came running up behind Ron. "Hey, Ron, sorry I'm late, my plane was late so I missed the second day train to Hogwarts and had to wait until it came back," she said.  
  
"Oh," he said, "I was wondering where you were. I hope we get sorted into the same house. According to what we were studying in our history class, Harry Potter is in the same grade as us, in Gryffindor house. It'd be cool if that's where we were sorted to."  
  
"Yeah," Jenny replied. They reached the top of the stairs and opened one of the two large doors at the entrance. They stepped inside the large school and followed the written directions to Professor Dumbledore's office. When they got there, the headmaster was already wating for them.  
  
"You two are the last two to arrive," he greeted, "But that's alright. Please come inside so we can sort you and the other exchange students into you houses." Ron and Jenny followed the old man into the office, and saw that the other four students were in fact already there. They sat in the last two seats. Another professor, who Dumbledore addressed as Professor Mcgonagall, went to the first seat where a girl named Emily was sitting.  
  
"Emily, from Australia," Mcgonagall said, without using the girl's last name. She set a hat, called the Sorting Hat, on Emily's head. (A/N: just imagine that the Sorting Hat only sings a song on the first day.)  
  
The Sorting Hat seemed to think for a while, then shouted out: "Ravenclaw!" Mcgonagall removed the hat from Emily's head and put it on the next student's head.  
  
"Anna, from Australia," she said. The Sorting Hat didn't take much time at all on Anna.  
  
"Hufflepuff!"  
  
"Jack, from France," Mcgonagall said and moved the hat to the next person.  
  
"Slytherin!" the hat said after about a minute.  
  
Again the professor moved the hat down the line, this time to Tomás, from Mexico. The Sorting Hat declaired him a Ravenclaw, and then it was Jenny's turn to be sorted.  
  
The hat was placed on Jenny's head, and it took about three minutes to decide on Jenny's house. "Gryffindor!" it said, matter of factly.  
  
Ron's heart pounded as the hat was placed on his head. He wanted to be placed in Gryffindor with Jenny and Harry Potter, and he was hoping that was what the hat would chose.  
  
He heard the hat whispering to him. "Too strong a person for Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are probably the best bets. Or Slytherin. No, Slytherin is out. Eh..." it said.  
  
Ron smiled as the hat made it's decision. "Gryffindor!"  
  
Mcgonagall removed the hat from Ron's head and Dumbledore started talking. "We have prefects coming to bring you to your rooms to get you settled in. Ah, here they are now," he said.  
  
Four students walked in, a blonde girl for Hufflepuff, a black-haired boy for Ravenclaw, a white-blondish boy for Slytherin, and a brown haired girl for Gryffindor. As soon as Ron saw the Gryffindor prefect, he was amazed. She was everything he liked in a girl: her hair was semi-long and brown, but somewhat messy, she didn't care what others thought. And her eyes, Ron's favorite feature of a girl, were a nice deep brown. She looked smart and kind, which Ron also liked. Dumbledore spoke up again.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, you are to take Jack to Slytherin house," he said, and Draco Malfoy and Jack left. "Miss Granger, Ron and Jenny are the new Gryffindors, please take them with you," he said, and Ron and Jenny followed the girl, and they could hear Dumbledore instructing the Ravenclaw prefect to take Tomás and Emily to Ravenclaw.  
  
"Okay, this is the way to Gryffindor," the girl said, walking down the hall. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Hermione, what's yours again?" she asked.  
  
"I'm Jenny," Jenny said. "And this is my friend Ron. We're from America."  
  
"That's cool," Hermione said. "Your accents are neat, I love American accents." Jenny laughed. They reached they end of the hall and Hermione led them to the right, down another hall that ended in a picture of a fat lady in a dress. "Candlestick," she whispered to the portrait, which flung open to allow entrance. "That's the password to get in Gryffindor tower, so don't forget it," Hermione warned the two.  
  
They walked into the room, which Hermione told them was called the common room. She explained that everyone else was in classes now, and she told Ron to follow the staricase to the right side of the room until he found a door that said "5th Years" which is where he shoud find his bed. She brought Jenny up to her room and Ron went to his. He walked up the stairs and found the door, then he pushed it open. It had a few four poster beds, one of which had his trunk at the end of it. He heard Hermione calling him from the common room, so he shut the door and went back downstairs.  
  
"I'm supposed to bring you to class now," Hermione said, "and since we have all the same classes, with the exception that you have Divination and I have Arithmancy. Right now is our second class, Charms, with Professor Flitwick. You had a Charms class in America right?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah," Ron answered.  
  
"Good, then you should be able to catch up soon." They followed Hermione to a room and she opened the door. The teacher, who was talking, looked at the door. "Professor Flitwick, this is Jenny and Ron, the new Gryffindors," Hermione explained.  
  
"Jenny, Ron, please take a seat at the table behind Miss Granger and Mister Potter," the small man said. Ron and Jenny looked at Hermione and the black haired boy beside her, Harry Potter. The walked to the desks, passing the new Slytherin Jack, who was at a table with Draco. They got to the seats behind Hermione and Harry and they sat down. Professor Flitwick began talking again. "As I was saying, the new charm that we're learning today is the Floating Charm. This charm will make anything, from a feather to a human to an elephant float on water. The charm however, is limited to a thirty minute time period. The spell is 'Aquaflotos,'" he said. He lifted a fish bowl full of water onto his desk. Next he aimed his wand at the bottle of ink on his desk and said, "Aquaflotos!" He then picked up the bottle and dropped it into the bowl. Instead of sinking, it dropped into the water and floated. "Now," he informed, "get in groups of two to try this charm."  
  
Ron and Jenny automatically paired up, and Flitwick brought a fishbowl and bottle of ink to everyone. "I would like each person to perform this spell two times, if you need assistance, don't be afraid to ask."  
  
Ron took out his wand and aimed it at the bottle. "Aquaflotos!" He picked up the bottle and placed it into the bowl, where it floated. He did it once again, and Jenny did it twice, and soon the class was dismissed. Ron and Jenny met up with Hermione, Harry, and a red haired boy.  
  
"Jenny, Ron, hey," Hermione said. "Oh, Harry and Ron, this is Ron and Jenny, Ron and Jenny, this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Ron and Jenny said their hellos to Harry and Ron. "Two Rons," Hermione said. "I'll call you new Ron okay?" she asked Ron. "I know it sounds mean, but..."  
  
"That's okay," Ron said, and they continued on to their next class, Potions.  
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A/N: I know, pretty slow going and not very plotful, but I needed to start somehow. The plot should start to emerge by the next chapter. 


	2. Dissapearance

Exchanged Love  
  
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The five Hogwarts students walked towards the Potions dungeon, where Professor Snape would be strict as usual. Harry warned Ron and Jenny that Snape hated Gryffindors, so they had to be careful not to make him mad. Ron and Jenny understood, and they reached the Potions dungeon. They went to the back of the room and sat down. When class started, Snape stepped into the room.  
  
"We have three exchange students in this class," he informed the class. "We have Jack, from France, who is in Slytherin. And," he said, slightly sneering, "we have Ronald and Jennifer from the United States. They're in Gryffindor. Now, for today's lesson. We are going to start the Dubloslango Potion. With this potion, you can speak so only your partner can understand you. Get out your cauldrons. Here are the ingredients: A half cup of water, 2 pinches of crumbled Mountain Troll skin, 1 Monarch Butterfly wing, 4 Antarctican Mushrooms, 1 pine needle, and one piece of your partners hair."  
  
Ron and Jenny started to get out their ingredients, but Snape spoke up again. "I will be choosing your partners," he said. Ron and Jenny looked bummed, but Ron thought maybe he would put him and Hermione together. "Malfoy, you can be with Jennifer, she looks like she needs help. Jack, you can be with Miss Granger over here. Weasley and Millicent you'll be working together. Miss Brown, you'll be with Ronald. Potter, get with Goyle. Crabbe and Longbottom. Pansy, you'll be with Zabini..." he continued on, and Ron went over to work with the pretty Lavender Brown.  
  
"Hi," she said, "I'm Lavender. And you're Ron right?" she asked. At least she didn't call him Ronald like Snape was calling him.  
  
"Yeah," Ron said. "Are you in Gryffindor or Slytherin?"  
  
"Gryffindor," she answered.  
  
"Cool... So are you ready to start this potion?" Ron asked.  
  
"Yeah." She looked down at the ingredients list. She poured a half cup of water into her cauldron, and Ron did the same to his. Next they each put in the two pinches of Mountain Troll skin, which they had to get from Snape since it wasn't a common ingredient. Then they put the Monarch wing in their mixture, and then Ron added the 4 mushrooms. "Oops," Lavender said. "Can I borrow some mushrooms from you? I forgot to buy some."  
  
"Sure, here you go," Ron said and handed her 4 mushrooms. They put the second to the last ingredient, the pine needle, into the conoction. "Last step," Ron said. They each pulled out a hair and gave it to their partner. Just then Snape was walking past. He stopped at their table.  
  
"Put in the hairs now," he instructed and waited. They did. Ron's turned a pink color, and Lavender's turned red. "The color of the potion should be the favorite color of your partner. If not, you messed up. Don't do anything else with you potion until I give further instructions to do so." He walked away.  
  
"Is your favorite color pink?" Ron asked, hoping he did the potion right.  
  
"Yeah, is yours red?" she asked.  
  
"Yep," he said, happy he did it right. He didn't want to be on Snape's bad side.  
  
After about five minutes, all the students were finished, so Snape told them what to do next. "Now drink your potion. You should feel it going down your throat, it should be ice cold. Drink the whole think, and for five minutes, you should only be able to hear your partner, everyone else's voices should be garbled."  
  
Ron and Lavender picked up their potions and drank them. Ron felt the cold potion sliding down his throat.  
  
"Hello?" he said to Lavender.  
  
"Hi! This is cool!" she replied, as the other students were talking and their voices were messed up. They talked for five minutes. And right before the time ran out, Lavender asked Ron if he'd go to the Halloween Dance the next month. Afraid he wouldn't get another date, especially Hermione, he agreed. The class ended, and the potions were all worn out. Snape put a list of grades for the potion up on the wall. Everyone got A's, except for Neville Longbottom and Vincent Crabbe. (They had each drank the potion with their own hair in it, so they could only hear themselves talk, not anyone else.)  
  
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly for Ron. At the end of the day, Ron was in his dorm with Harry, the other Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. Dean brought up the subject of the following month's Halloween Dance. "You guys should start getting dates, last year I almost didn't get one because I waited so long."  
  
"Oh yeah Dean, well you better start too," Seamus said.  
  
"For you information Seamus, I have a date already," he said.  
  
"Who?" Harry asked.  
  
"Parvati," he replied.  
  
"Well, I guess that leaves the rest of us searching for dates," Seamus said. "Unless... Ron, do you have a date yet?" Everyone looked at Ron.  
  
"Yeah," he said.  
  
"Really? Who?" the other Ron asked.  
  
"Lavender Brown," he answered.  
  
"Woah, getting the babes already?" Seamus commented and laughed. They talked for a few more minutes and then went to bed.  
  
* * *  
  
In the morning, they awoke to screams of Parvati. Ron, Harry, and the other Ron rushed into the 5th year girls dorm, where a few people were already gathered, including Professor Mcgonagall.  
  
"What is it? What's happened?" Mcgonagall asked.  
  
Parvati pointed to Hermione, Lavender, and Jenny's beds. There was traces of blood on them.  
  
"Oh my," the professor said. "Alright everyone, get out, this is serious. Out, now," she ordered. Everyone except Parvati and Mcgonagall left. Ron, Harry, and Ron waited in the common room. They saw Mcgonagall rushing out of Gryffindor tower, and then come back with Dumbledore a few moments later. Dumbledore came into the common room to explain what was happening to everyone.  
  
"We aren't sure where these three young ladies are, but the small amount of blood was still wet, so it wasn't too long ago that they dissapeared. If anyone has any information, please come to Professor Mcgonagall or myself at once. Thank you," he said, and left with Mcgonagall. Almost all of the students went back to their rooms in fear. The two Ron's and Harry, however, stayed in the common room.  
  
"We've got to go find them," Harry said.  
  
"Harry," Ron Weasley said, "We always get in trouble when we go out for this kind of stuff."  
  
"We can't just let them be gone Ron, we can do it. Just like we always have in the past," Harry replied.  
  
"I'm all for it," Ron said "How 'bout you Ron?" he asked, looking at the red haired boy.  
  
"Fine," he finally agreed. The three boys snuck out of Gryffindor tower with the help of Harry's invisibility cloak. They noticed a few very small drops of blood on the floor. They wouldn't even have noticed them if Ron hadn't had to stop and tie his shoe. They noticed a few other drops along the hallway and followed them. They reached a classroom which the door of was closed. They opened it, looked around to make sure nobody was inside, and closed the door and removed the cloak. The room was empty except a large hole in the center of the floor. At the edge of it was a piece of torn off fabric from a nightgown. It was Hermione's.  
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A/N: A little more productive, still needs a little help. 


	3. Voldemort

Exchanged Love  
  
A/N: as you read this chapter, you'll realize that I've changed Ron Weasley's name to Kermit-Ron, so that means that Ron is me, not Ron Weasley.  
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Harry bent over and picked it up. "This is off from Hermione's nightgown," he said. "So that means that they must be in this hole."  
  
"Harry, we can't jump in a hole that we don't know what's at the bottom," Ron commented. "Remember what happened last time?"  
  
"What happened last time?" (new) Ron asked.  
  
"Last time, it was in our first year, and we jumped into a hole where there was a Devil's Snare that grabbed me and Harry, and were only just in time saved by Hermione," Ron explained.  
  
"Oh, well, I'll go first then if you want, I'm sort of adventurous," Ron told the British boys.  
  
"Fine with us," Harry said. "Did you bring your wand?"  
  
"Yeah, luckily," Ron said. "Lumos!" His wand's tip lit up, and he sat at the edge of the hole. "K guys, I'm goin' in." He slid off into the hole, holding his wand in front of him to see where he was headed. He reached the bottom, which the hole bent off so he didn't fall onto the floor. He jumped down from the pipe and held his wand out. He looked around for any trace of the girls.  
  
"Is it safe?" Harry called down.  
  
"Yeah!" Ron called back, forgetting that he had left the other guys up there. They came sliding down the hole, and Ron landed in a puddle of green slimy stuff as he landed. Ron and Harry laughed at him.  
  
"Ron, you're all green!" Harry said.  
  
"Shut up you guys, it's not easy being green," he said, not realizing that he was saying one of Kermit the Frog's famous lines.  
  
"Haha, I'm going to call you Kermit-Ron now! That way people won't confuse us," Ron said.  
  
Kermit-Ron obviously didn't get it, because he gave Ron a puzzling glare and stood up. "Come on guys, you drug me down here, so stop laughing and let's find the girls," Kermit-Ron said.  
  
"Right," Ron and Harry said in unison. They guys stared heading down the long, narrow tunnel, now with all of their wands lit. There were only a couple more drops of blood, but it wasn't necessary in their search, as their was only one way to go. They reached almost the end of the tunnel, they could see a door up ahead. But all of a sudden Harry stopped and clutched the scar on his forehead. He didn't make much noise, but he seemed as if he was in horrible pain.  
  
"Uh oh," Kermit-Ron said.  
  
"What?" Ron asked.  
  
"His scar's hurting him. That means that You-Know-Who is probably close by or something," Kermit-Ron explained.  
  
"You-Know-Who? Who's that?" Ron asked.  
  
"You don't know who You-Know-Who is?" Kermit-Ron asked, awestruck, and tryind to help Harry into a sitting position.  
  
"I guess not," Ron said.  
  
"The Dark Lord?" Kermit-Ron said, hoping that would explain it to Ron.  
  
"Oh, you mean Voldemort?" Ron asked.  
  
Kermit-Ron cringed and said, "Yeah, him, but pleeease don't say that name."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because of who he is. Few people say it," Kermit-Ron explained.  
  
"Oh, in America, everyone says it. Of course we're scared of him, but we always learned that we shouldn't be afraid to say the name," Ron said.  
  
"Well, I can't handle it, now, if you don't mind..." Kermit-Ron trailed off, motioning his head to Harry.  
  
"Oh, sorry," Ron said. He helped Kermit-Ron sit Harry down.  
  
Harry started to come out of his pain. "Ohhh... Vodemort must be... near..." he managed to say, with another cringe from Kermit-Ron.  
  
"Harry," Kermit-Ron said, "we're going to have to leave you here if you can't handle it."  
  
"I can handle it, let's go," he said, and groaned as he got up. They held his arms around their necks as they walked to the door. Ron could see the amount of pain in Harry's face. They got to the door, and Kermit-Ron opened it, letting the three in.  
  
The room was small and round, with nothing in it but three chairs with the three girls in them, tied up and fainted. Harry comented that the pain was gone and Voldemort must be gone (and yet another cringe from Kermit-Ron.) They untied the girls and started to carry them back to the hole, but the room and the tunnel started to fill up with water.  
  
"Oh no!" Ron said. He thought for a minute, then said "Aquaflotos" with his wand pointed at Lavender. Lavender started to float on the water, so he pulled her along to the hole. Harry and Kermit-Ron did the same with Jenny and Hermione. Soon, when they were at the hole, the water was filling up the hole. So the guys started swimming up the hole and let the girls float on the rising water. When they reached the entrance to the hole, Professors Dumbledore and Mcgonagall were waiting for them.  
  
"Since we told you to stay in Gryffindor Tower, and you disobeyed those orders, we are going to take 20 points from Gryffindor for each of you," Mcgonagall said immediately, and the guys, who were holding the girls up, said nothing because they didn't want more point deduction. "But," she continued, "you did rescue these girls, which is praiseworthy, so we reward each of you with 15 points, so altogether, you've lost 15 points. Now, I am to escort you to the hospital wings with these young ladies, then you are to go straight to your towers, classes are canceled today so the headmaster may conduct a search."  
  
"But professor..." Ron started.  
  
"No buts about it Ronald. Let's go to the hospital wing now," Mcgonagall said.  
  
"This is serious," he said anyway. "Voldemort did this!" This cause Mcgonagall to look at Dumbledore.  
  
"Are you sure?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"Well I'm not, and neither is Kerm---, I mean Ron, but Harry seemed like he was in a lot of pain down there, he was holding his scar really tight and everything," Ron explained.  
  
"Well," Mcgonagall said. "Mr. Potter, I advise you to go with Professor Dumbledore, and Ronald and Ron, help me bring these ladies to the hospital wing." Ron carried Lavender, Kermit-Ron carried Hermione, and Mcgonagall carried Jenny.  
  
* * *  
  
Madam Pomfrey informed them that the girls would be fine, they just needed to stay in the hospital wing for the night. Mcgonagall left for Dumbledore's office, and Ron and Kermit-Ron went back to the common room, where they were flocked my all the students about what had happened.  
  
Harry didn't come back to Gryffindor until noon, and the three guys went silently to the Great Hall for lunch.  
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A/N: I know that Kermit would be better than Kermit-Ron, but if I just put Kermit, you might get confused or something, haha. Hope you enjoyed it, next chapter up soon. 


	4. Diary

Exchanged Love  
  
A/N: K.R. means Kermit-Ron (or Ron Weasley) so that's who K.R. is referring to.  
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The guys ate lunch silently, and to none of their suprise, the whole school was already talking about what happened. After lunch, they went back to the common room, where Mcgonagall was about to tell all students that they needed to stay in Gryffindor until further notice. Everyone just sat around and talked, except Ron, Harry, and K.R. Ron got an idea and brought it up to Harry and K.R. "Hey you guys, at Fallsdale, we had a book called Fallsdale: A History, so is there like a Hogwarts History book?"  
  
"Hogwarts: A History," K.R. mumbled.  
  
"Great, do either of you have it?" he asked.  
  
"I've got one," Harry said, "But K.R. lost it." He glared at K.R.  
  
"Do you know anyone else who has it?" Ron asked, getting impatient.  
  
"Hermione does, why?" K.R. asked.  
  
"You'll see," Ron said, and got up to talk to Mcgonagall.  
  
When Ron left, K.R. mumbled to Harry, "Americans." and shook his head as if he didn't understand Americans.  
  
Ron stepped up to the Transfiguration professor, who was to stay in the Gryffindor common room (to make sure nobody left), and asked her for permission to go into the 5th year girls' dorm. "And why, may I ask?" she said, looking rather strict.  
  
"Well I was planning to look through Hogwarts: A History, because I need something to do, and I've never read it, living in America and all. And Hermione is the only one I know who has it that I think would let me borrow it," he explained.  
  
She thought about it for a minute and then answered him. "Well I suppose I can let you, as long as you return it as soon as you're done. And since you are friends of Misters Potter and Weasley, who are friends of Miss Granger, I'm sure she'll get it back. So please get it hurridly, don't dawdle and don't go throught her things. Just get the book and come back down here. Understood?" she lectured.  
  
"Yes, thank you ma'am," Ron said, and rushed up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. He opened the 5th year door and found what he was sure was her bed and searched around for the book. He found a stack of books and picked the first one up. It was a diary that had a lock. It was unlocked though, so with a quick glance at the door to check that nobody was watching him, he opened it to the last few entries. He read the one of the first day he had arrived.  
  
Dear Diary,  
Today was the second day of school, and I'm so excited! I get some extra privileges because I'm a prefect this year. Harry is too, but he doesn't seem as excited about it as I am, I don't know why. But I find it exciting! And since I'm a prefect, I got to show the new exchange students (from America) that are in Gryffindor around! It was so fun. And the boy, Ron, is really cute! I'm hoping he'll ask me to the Halloween dance. He has really cute eyes, that's what I noticed first. Well, I'm tired so I'm going to bed now.  
Always,  
Hermione  
  
Ron was kind of amazed that she liked him too, and now he had Lavender for his date to the dance. He'd have to think about that later, because he was looking at last night's entry.  
  
Dear Diary,  
Today was fun, the classes are just as fun as ever! And this exchange student, Ron, is looking so cute! I love his accent, it's great. But I feel like I'm in competition, because Lavender was talking about how she asked him to the dance and he said yes. And his friend, Jenny, also seems to like him a little. I mean, he's not the hottest guy in the world, but there's just something about him. I don't know, but he's so cute and I have a crush on him. The only boyfriend I've ever had was Victor, and that wasn't the best time, but I hope that Ron will be better, if he even notices me. We're friends and all, but he just seems like he doesn't like me in that way. I can't blame him really, my hair's horrible, and I'm not the prettiest girl in the school, but I hope he'll notice me... Well, on a more hopeful note, we have more classes tomorrow, so I'm going to bed.  
Always,  
Hermione  
  
Wow, Ron thought, I never knew she was really into me. But she puts herself down too much, she IS pretty and her hair's great...  
  
His thoughts were soon interrupted by the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs. He quickly shut the diary and searched the stack for Hogwarts: A History. He found it, got up, and turned to head to the door. Mcgonagall walked in. "I told you to hurry Ronald. What were you doing?"  
  
"I'm sorry ma'am, I was having trouble finding it, but I did," he said. She looked at him with her eyes squinted slightly, but let him go back down to the common room without anything further. He walked over to Harry and K.R. and opened the book on the small coffee table. He went to the back, the index, and searched through the S section until he found what he was looking for, and turned to page 237.  
  
"What are you doing?" Harry asked.  
  
"Well," he said, while reading the page at the same time, "I saw this snake symbol when we were in that tunnel this morning. Actually, two of them. One was engraved into the wall of the tunnel/hole thing, and one was on the floor at the opening of the hole. And since Voldemort..." Ron stopped because K.R. cringed. "...oops, sorry K.R., since 'You-Know-Who' has something to with snakes, as we learned in America in my Defense Against the Dark Arts class, I thought it must be something important, and... Oh look, right here!" he said, a little too loud, (half the people in the common room turned to give him weird looks) and pointed to a picture on the page.  
  
"Hey!" Harry said, alarmed.  
  
"What?" Ron asked.  
  
"That's the symbol I saw in my second year on a water faucet. It's like a parseltongue thing, I can talk to it and it opens up," he explained, slightly curious as to what that meant the symbols had in store.  
  
"You're a parseltongue?" Ron asked, amazed.  
  
"Yeah, and I think we need to go back there tonight, when Mcgonagall's gone..." Harry said, his eyes sparkling with adventurism.  
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Yay, the story is unraveling! Love, adventure, mystery... this will be a great story in no time at all! Lol. Review please, tell me what you think, give me ideas, whatever, although I've got most of the story thought out. 


	5. The Box

Exchanged Love  
  
A/N: Remember that K.R. is Ron Weasley.  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
After convincing K.R. to listen to them, Ron and Harry planned out how they were going to need to check those symbols. They waited until midnight and grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak, their wands, and a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.  
  
They snuck downstairs, avoiding making any noise, and left the room, and down to where they were last night, to the room with the hole. (A/N: Let's say this is one of the rooms that never moves around in the school.) As they knew, Filch was guarding the room, but Mrs. Norris must have been elsewhere, she wasn't sniffing around. With the cloak tightly wrapped around them, the guys snuck to about 100 feet from the old man, and Ron took a jellybean from the bag, and threw it down the hall, which sent Filch running to see who had made a noise. They quickly rushed to the door, which was locked. Harry whispered "Alohamora" and aimed his wand at the door, and they opened it and went in, K.R. carefully closing the door.  
  
"Where's the hole?" Harry whispered, looking around.  
  
"Dude, the symbol," Ron said and pointed at the snake symbol on the floor.  
  
"Oh, right," Harry said and sat on the floor, his face close to the symbol. "Open up," he whispered, and looked up at K.R.  
  
"English," he said and shook his head, feeling slight dèjá vu from his second year.  
  
Harry tried again, this time with sucess, the hole opening up, and it suddenly filling with water again. This time they were prepared, and had their swimming trunks on underneath their pants. They stripped down to their trunks, and got ready to dive in, leaving the cloak and beans there, but taking their wands. They got in, and swam down to where Ron saw the symbol. Luckily, Ron had taught Harry the Bubble-Head charm before they left the common room, so Harry could speak to the symbol. It opened up, revealing another passage, but the water didn't fill up this hole. They crawled in, but Ron and K.R. had used the Bubble-Head charm also, so they weren't gasping for air. The passage was almost pitch dark, only the light from the other tunnel shining in slightly. They lit their wands and the dark tunnel lit up. It was a long tunnel, and they followed it all the way to a fork, deviding it into two different directions. Ron decided that he'd go alone on the right fork, and Harry and K.R. took the left path. Ron walked along it slowly, he has kind of scared of what awaited him. He finally reached a door. He hesitated in opening it, but decided not to tell Harry and K.R. just yet. He finally did open it, revealing a very small room with one shelf in it. On the shelf lay a single box, which Ron went over and picked up. He opened it and was surprised at what he found.  
  
There were pictures and newspaper articles of the same few people. Harry, K.R., Hermione, Lavender, Jenny, and himself. He picked a nespaper clipping up, which was from the American wizard newspaper, The Magical Press. It had a picture of he and Jenny, with the caption 'Fallsdale students to go to Britain's Hogwarts.' He picked up another, which was a picture of Harry, Hermione, and K.R. that were frowning and looking very sad. He turned the picture over, but all it said on the reverse side was 'Harry, Ron, and I.' That meant it was Hermione's picture. Was this her box? Ron thought. But then he picked up a picture of Lavender that said 'Me on Christmas Vacation' on the back. So it wasn't Hermione's box. Was it... Voldemort's? Ron shuddered and closed the box, bringing it with him as he left the room in search of Harry and K.R.  
  
He followed the path back to the fork, then followed that, which was considerably shorter than his route. He saw Harry and K.R. coming out of a door. He went up to them. "Find anything useful?" he asked.  
  
"No," Harry said, "It was empty, but it took us a while to look because it was a big room. There weren't any symbols or anything."  
  
"Waste of time," K.R. said, "I knew it was."  
  
"Not exactly," Ron said, showing the box to the two guys.  
  
"What's that?" Harry asked.  
  
"I'll show you, but we should take it back to the dorm, it's almost five o'clock," Ron said, holding his lit wand up to his watch.  
  
"We've been in here for five hours?" K.R. asked.  
  
"Yeah," Ron answered.  
  
"Uh oh, this isnt good," Harry said, after they had swam back up to the main room.  
  
"What?" K.R. asked.  
  
"Filch!" Harry said. "We thought of how to get in, but we didn't think of how we were going to get out, he's back guarding the door by now."  
  
Sure enough, they heard a cough from the other side of the door, and it was Filch's. They sat down, trying to think of an idea. After a seemingly endless hour, they heard another voice.  
  
"Filch! Your stupid cat is over by the Great Hall and she's stuck, making a horrible ruckus," the voice said, being that of Severus Snape.  
  
"Mrs. Norris," Filch said in fright that his poor cat was hurt, and he rushed off, followed by Snape.  
  
The guys got up quickly, and pushed open the door which Filch never even relocked. Harry went back to grab the cloak and every flavor beans (making sure not to drop any, so they wouldn't be caught) and they hurried to Gryffindor, saying "Candlestick" to the fat lady, who yawned and let them in. They hurried up to their dorm, Ron putting the box under his bed, and they tried to get a little sleep before they had to get up again, for classes.  
  
* * *  
  
The guys woke up and went down for breakfast, but not before Ron made sure the box was still under his bed and convincing Harry and K.R. to wait until after breakfast to see what was in it, where they'd look at the contents before their first class. They ate quickly, and were about to rush back to the box when Mcgonagall stopped them. "Boys, the girls are awake now in the hospital wing, if you want to go see them," she said, and walked off to the staff table. They decided it was more important then the box right now, so they went to the hospital wing.  
  
Madam Pomfrey greeted them with "Hello boys, they're ready to go, but they're a little weak, so if you could pleases help them to the Great Hall for breakfast?" she said rather than asked, and walked them to the girls.  
  
Lavender reached up for Ron to help her up and walk, and Harry walked Hermione and K.R. walked Jenny. Ron and Lavender, who were in the back were talking and Lavender was giggling, which caused Hermione to glance back for a second, looking rather sad. Ron frowned, but still listened to Lavender, not wanting to be rude. They made it to the Great Hall and the guys helped the girls over to the Gryffindor table. The few students that were left in the dining room looked over, but they didn't say anything. The guys waited until the girls finished eating, and they walked them to the first class of the day, but Ron was still picturing Hermione's sad glance at him and Lavender.  
* * * * * * * * * * 


	6. Breaking Up

Exchanged Love

A/N: Remember that K.R. is Ron Weasley.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ron sat in first hour, History of Magic, and as boring as the class was, it gave him time to think about the whole Lavender/ Hermione/ dance thing.  He really liked Hermione, but how would he get out of his date with Lavender?   He didn't want to hurt her; he wasn't like that.  He didn't want to cheat on her.

"Ingle the Englishman was the first British muggle to ever suspect a townsperson of being a witch.  His accusation never made it to the town hall though, for he accused the witch directly.  And as she _was _a witch, she cast a spell on him, which turned him into stone.  The stone statue of Ingle still stands there today…" Professor Binns droned on.

"When are we ever going to need this?" Jenny whispered to Ron, shaking him out of his train of thought.

"Probably never," he replied, and sighed.  After more of Binns' droning, the class was released.  Charms and Potions went by slowly also, but Ron was interested in the subject they were learning about in Defense Against the Dark Arts.  The new D.A.D.A. teacher, Professor Edwin Riggs, was teaching the class about a dark creature that was very rare, but very, very deadly.

"This creature," Riggs said, holding up a picture of a pitch-black creature the size of, and that looked like, a rabbit, "is called a Rappire.  It looks like a rabbit, and the only way to tell the difference is that it is pitch-black and has fangs.  One bite from this baby and you'll die within two minutes.  These creatures are only found here in England, and they are rare to see any other time besides from 11:30 P.M. to midnight.  If you ever come across one of these creatures, be sure to run away as fast as you can, they can't run very fast, so you have a chance.  There is no known spell to banish this creature."  The professor looked down at his watch.  "Oops, it's time for you to go to lunch," he said, releasing the students.

Ron and Jenny caught up with Harry, K.R., and Hermione.  They all went to lunch together.  When they got there, the house elves were busily scrubbing at the floors, tables, and walls.  Mcgonagall was at the entrance of the Great Hall, and she explained what was happening.

"One of the house elves brought a dish of food into the Great Hall, for some reason, and he dropped the platter, which exploded all over the room.  You are all to eat outside on the school grounds today, there are house elves serving sandwiches and drinks outside," she said, looking aggravated.  So the group went outside.  They each got two sandwiches and a drink from the elves, and they went to go sit by the lake.  They ate in silence, and finally Harry pulled Jenny away, saying he had to ask her about the History of Magic homework.  K.R. saw that Ginny was over flirting with Colin Creevey, and he rushed over to keep his sister away from him.  That left Ron and Hermione sitting at the lake's edge.  Hermione sat there, not talking, looking out onto the lake's surface.  Ron spoke up to her.

"Hermione… I know that I haven't showed you any feeling or anything, but I'm not going to lie about it, I really like you.  I've had a crush on you since the minute you walked into Dumbledore's office.  And I didn't think you had any feelings for me, but I saw the way you looked at me this morning," he said, not wanting her to know that he read her diary.  "I wouldn't have said yes to Lavender if I thought I had a chance with you.  I'd rather go with you, you're perfect."

She looked up at him.  "Why would you want me?  I'm ugly.  Lavender's beautiful, and you want me over her?  Is this some kind of joke or something?  Because it's not very funny.  I thought you were different, I really did," she said, her eyes welling up with tears.  She got up and ran towards the school.  Ron didn't know what to do, so he just sat there in disbelief.   Lavender walked over to him.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey," he replied, staring at the ground.

"What's wrong?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing," he answered.

"Well, I have something to tell you," she said, in a rather guilty tone.

"Yeah?"

"I can't put this subtly, and I can't believe I did it," she said, her eyes trailing to the ground, her hand falling from his shoulder.

"Go on," he urged.

"Well, it was last night, and Seamus and I were the last ones in the common room.  We were talking about Herbology homework and I don't know, all of a sudden it just… happened."

"What happened?" Ron asked, his eyes fixating on her face.

"We kissed.  And… I don't know, it just felt so good.  I like you, I like you a lot, but I think I'm just… more compatible with him.  I'm so sorry.  But I can't stand the feeling of have cheated on someone.  I think that we need to break up, I can't handle going to the dance with you, I made a big mistake and I don't want to hurt you.  I'm sorry," she said, and got up, following Hermione's trail.

"I can't have Hermione, I can't have Lavender," Ron said to himself in disbelief.  "What a way to start the year."  He got up and went to the school, going to the Gryffindor common room, because there was still an hour before another class started up.  He said "candlestick" to the fat lady and entered the room.  When he got in, he saw Hermione on the couch.  She looked up at him, then quickly grabbed up her books and ran to her room.  She dropped a book, and Ron picked it up.  "Hermione!" he called, trying to return the book, but she kept running.  He looked down at the book in his hands.  It was her diary.  He opened it, turning to the page that had the last entries.  He saw the two he read before, but saw a new one.  He sat down on the couch and started reading it.

Dear Diary,

I just messed up badly.  Ron just told me that he had feelings for me and I went off.  I thought he was lying to me, but I realized, after I thought about it, that he wasn't lying.  I can't believe I'm so stupid.  I can't face him now.  I don't know what to do; I can't talk to him about it.  I just can't.  I'll have to talk to Harry about it.  He'll understand.  He told me that he liked Ron's friend Jenny, and he was going to ask her to the dance at lunch, and sure enough, he dragged her off to talk.  I can talk to Harry, he'll listen.  I used to have feelings for Harry, but that all changed when Ron showed up from the U.S.  But I messed it all up now.  I'm going to talk to Harry tonight, so I

That's where the writing stopped; she must have been in the middle of writing in it when he came in.  He shut the book and set it on the coffee table, not wanting to face her now, just as she didn't want to face him.  Instead, he went up to his room and got a scroll, quill, and a bottle of ink.  He went down to the common room and started to write her a letter.

_Hermione-_

_I'm sorry if I scared you at lunch today, I guess I shouldn't have been so open with my feelings.  But I really do like you, I wasn't joking.  I'm sorry if you were startled or anything, I was surprised I told you too.  But Lavender broke up with me, and now I'm dateless for the dance.  And if I'm not mistaken, you're dateless also.  So I'd really like it if you'd go with me.  Please accept, I'll make it all up to you, somehow.  Just think about it.  Thanks._

_-Ron-_

He stuck the note between the pages of the diary and left it on the table, he himself getting up and leaving the common room in search of Jenny, Harry, or K.R. to hang out with and get his mind off Hermione.

* * * * * * * * *

I know that the way Lavender broke up with Ron was really corny, but it was in lack of a better idea.  So I hope you like this chapter.  Reply please. J Thanks.


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